What park passes do you buy?

[Melrosgirl]

Curious-(as usual!) - which park passes do you, as a DVC member, buy each visit?

UPH?
AP?

I'm guessing DVC members most likely do not do the parks "Commando" style, so are ultimate park hoppers necessary?

thanks!

 

[ohiominnie]

We live in Ohio and hold AP's. If you go more than 8 days it's cheaper that way. We usually go down for 12 nights in May and 12 in December, so it's cost effective that way. It's also wonderful to just go to a park for dinner or to stroll around and not feel like you are losing out on a hopper pass day.

 

[golfnut1264]

i buy annual passes and usually get 2 10+ night vacations out of them....if i go to a water park i will pay cash...$1450 for me wife and to kids 7 years old...a 7 day pass would cost about $1300 for the 4 of us...great deal for the annual pass..

 

[ToyStory Fan]

We did PAP's because I like the water parks, and we try to get 2 trips out of 1 pass (usually a total of 15-16 days) which is about 4 days better than break-even on a length of stay UPH pass for the equivalent time.

 

[Terry S]

AP's. We go a total of 18 days per year and this is the most cost effective way to go, that way if we just want to hop over to Epcot just for dinner one day we can. Also, we don't feel bad if we only go to the park for a few hours in the morning and then swim the rest of the day.

 

[sgtdisney]

We buy a 4 or 5 day passport and then spread it over 2 (or more) visits... We have been going for 10+ years now to OKW and don't feel we have to visit the parks every day any more... Now, if DVC offered discounts on passes like the Florida Residents received we would buy those and hit the parks more for partial days when we are in Orlando.. Since Disney doesn't, and has no plans to, we are content to take ourselves (and our vacation dollars) off property and enjoy the other parts of Orlando!

 

[DisneyKidds]

AP's for us. We get two trips a year for a total of about 15 days. Sometimes an extra trip materializes. AP's are definitely the way to go for us.

As for being DVC members and the need for park hoppers - I think being a DVC member makes park hoppers all the more necessary. We like to do what we like to do. Some days that might mean parks all day. Other days that might be lounging around the resort and only going to Epcot for dinner and Illuminations. Our often casual approach makes park hoopers a big plus. We have to have the flexibility of park hopping, but don't feel like we have to be in a park all day to make it worth having.

 

[ILuvDVC]

We buy a 4 or 5 day passport and then spread it over 2 (or more) visits... We have been going for 10+ years now to OKW and don't feel we have to visit the parks every day any more... Now, if DVC offered discounts on passes like the Florida Residents received we would buy those and hit the parks more for partial days when we are in Orlando.. Since Disney doesn't, and has no plans to, we are content to take ourselves (and our vacation dollars) off property and enjoy the other parts of Orlando!

I've got to give this a try! But, I always feel like I have to spend my entire day in the parks, if I have a park Hopper! I don't like that feeling. So, we usually get an AP, and, if there is a year that we won't be in WDW more than 8 nights, then I may try to go without a pass...wish me luck!

 

[Pa@okw95]

We get AP passes that run for 3 trips. I buy them when we arrive on our first trip then they are good for two other trips or about 18 days in total. We stay at the Hilton before we go to OKW every trip so it works out for us. In the future I believe we will not buy any passes for WDW, it just does not do it for us anymore. We were spoiled when we got free passes for years from our OKW purchase. We only spend a couple of hours in the parks everyday if that so I just can't see it anymore. As they years roll on I think DVC will find more and more people like us, just tired of WDW parks.

 

[Dean]

As FL residents we've bought teh Play 4 passes the last few trips. They are 4 day park hopper passes that expire and have additional discounts with them. Previous to that we had bought Seasonal passes and tried to get several trips out of each one much like an AP. Because of that, I still have some 8-10 days left on park hopper passes from 8-12 years ago but since they never expire, I'm OK with that.

 

[DVC-Don]

AP's for us. We get 2 or 3 trips in on them. On the last set we had, we put 20 days in the parks.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We also buy APs and plan our trips so that we get two or three per pass. Since we live in Minnesota, we like to travel in December and January. Our annual runs out on 1/20/03 this time and we only will have had two trips on it this time with a total of 21 days. Next AP will have three trips on it. Our most number of days on an AP was 39 when we took three trips in 12 months.

 

[Granny]

I guess we're in the minority. We have bought AP's in the past, but when Disney changed their renewal policy (renewal starts when previous one expires instead of when you next go), we found them to be less than appealing.

We get Park Hopper passes now. We spend about 12 days a year at WDW....but we do not go to the parks every day. We enjoy Sea World, Discovery Cove and Busch Gardens very much as well.

With no decent DVC discount on admissions, we are not enticed to go to the WDW parks every day. And we are happy to have "non-park" days in our vacation to just relax, shop, etc. When we had AP's or LOS passes, we felt compelled to hit the parks more often to "get our money's worth".

To each his/her own....no right or wrong here, that's for sure.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We buy APs. Three trips in a year, total of 16 days at WDW. In 2003, we are going to try getting our post-Christmas trip in at the end of the AP year, so we could actually end up with a total of 20 or 21 days at WDW during the year. We have trips booked in January (4 nights), June (6 nights), and October (6 nights for the Food and Wine festival, first time there since we usually travel in March instead). If we are able to book a post-Christmas stay at the 11-month point, we would be at WDW for the last four or five days of the APs which we will start using Jan. 2nd.

Ralph

 

[SheriB]

Last year we bought 5 day Park Hopper Plus passes, because we do the water parks as well. They never expire, and we have 1 day and 2 plus options (we had 4 plus options as a bonus when we bought them) left. When we go this June we will probably just buy 4 day Hoppers. If we use them, fine. If not, we'll save the days for the next time(we're also doing Universal this year too, so it's very likely we will not be in Disney parks every day). We don't buy APs because we don't always go every year, usually every other. As Granny said, there's no right or wrong. It's based on your anticipated use.

Sheri

 

[disneydom]

WE HAVE STARTED BUYING AP FOR OUR TRIPS IT SAVES US A FEW DOLLARS AND EVERY PENNY COUNTS, AND WITH THE AP WE DON'T FEEL BAD GOING TO THE PARK FOR A FEW HOURS OR TO DINNER

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Our disney ticket purchases up to now:

AP November 99-'00 (two trips, 17 days total)
AP June 01-02 (5 trips, 30+ days total)

Water Park AP : June 02-03
Two swimming-only @ Disney trips planned next year with additional off-site items planned.

And will probably purchase regular AP's again in December '03 to start another round of trips to enjoy the theme parks.

Besides, we like the flexability that the ap's give us. We have used AP's to do the following:
--> Go in the park for just ONE ride (ToT), and leave.

--> go to the park just to eat (Le Cellier).

--> Go to the park just for the parade or fireworks.

Best of all, if the park you entered was too crowded/wet/cold/hot/whaterver you don't feel like you "wasted" a day by going there. Instead, your reaction is "I'll try again some other day."


P.S.
brag mode on/
You can sometimes use the long waits for ride at the park(s) to your advantage. On our last trip, the fastpass return for Pooh was around 5 pm when we got it at 1 pm. What did we do ? Got the FP, went and swam for several hours at Blizzard Beach, and then came back and rode Pooh - cool and relaxed. So Sweet !
/brag mode off

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We get Premium Annual Passes, as we can't live without many visits to Pleasure Island.

As you may or may not know, Annual Passes offer many good discounts around WDW, most notably the discounts for resort accommodations. You can really save a wad if you ever decide to pay cash a non DVC resort.

 

[MELSMICE]

In past years we had always gotten 7-day hopper pluses because we don't do the parks every day. When we found out that AP's were a better value & much more flexible we went with those & I don't think we will ever get anything else. As many posters have said, we love the flexibility. We have also gone in to get a FASTPASS for something - left to go swim & went back when it was time to ride. That was one of the best days of our last trip.

Bought PAP's in April 2001 - used for 14 days then
-- another 8 days in Dec. 2001
--another 14 days in Mar/April 2002

We bought AP vouchers to turn in during Nov. 2002 trip, however, were given some great passes whose days were going to expire the day we left & we used those & it was fine.

We'll validate our AP's in April of 2003 & use for 15 days,
--plan on returning in Nov/Dec 2003 for 7 or 8 days
--Will use them again April 2004 & renew them while we are there.

Those passes we will be able to use in April 2005 for what has become our annual Easter trip.

The one thing we did different was not get the PAP's which include the water parks. This is because we have an abundance of "pluses" left on Hopper passes & in the future if we want we will just get the Annual Water parks pass. We really don't do Pleasure Island and we've done Disney Quest & don't have a "must do" desire to go back again.

Anyway, AP's for us!

 

[RLevy29]

We buy annual passes and plan our trips around them.